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Highlights of the 2008 Mt. Gretna Tour of Homes

"The Beeches"

Owners: Jerry and Louise Doney

When she picked up the phone in Miami three years ago, Louise Doney learned that her husband—on a business trip to Pennsylvania—had just bought a cottage she’d never seen. It was 1,020 miles away. And they would soon be giving up a Florida home they had enjoyed for the past 20 years.
 
Yet she couldn’t have been happier. “If Jerry liked it, I knew I’d love it,” she says, with the serenity of a woman approaching her 50th wedding anniversary. Indeed, the Doneys had talked about returning to Pennsylvania for years. And Mt. Gretna, which she had enjoyed as a teenager, tugged at her heartstrings. “I sometimes think I was born in the wrong century,” she says.
 
Seeing this 1910 cottage for the first time after Thanksgiving in 2005, she found that it had everything she’d wanted: An upstairs sewing room with “nine over solid” windows (nine small panes atop one big lower pane)—perfect for illuminating her needlework. Bedrooms for four children and grandchildren. And garage space for Jerry’s automotive hobbies.
 
Yet major remodeling lay ahead: A new front porch, restoring a look she’d discovered in pictures from the 1940s. An enlarged living room with beam supports they covered with old barn wood. And downstairs windows to match the ones upstairs. Finally, they added cedar shake siding,
 
All of this while simultaneously redoing a new winter retreat in Florida—a carriage house near two daughters and their families.
 
Remodeling two homes at once is not something Louise Doney would recommend. But acting on strong impulses is. “When you feel something inside, you know it,” she says. “Then you have to act. You’ll be rewarded one hundred times over.”

“Jo-Ann”

Owner: Bennet J. Wiley

This cottage arrived on a flatbed wagon—a $125 mail order kit from Sears—pulled by two mules up the hill to Mt. Gretna’s Campmeeting early one morning in 1905. A week later, it was finished—put together by an eight-man crew.
 
Eager to move in were John and Anna Wiegand, an early Tabernacle minister and his wife. To give it a sense of home, their first order of business was to place a rocking chair on the porch.
 
Over the next century, that family tradition lingered. Seven generations have rocked on the mahogany porch of this three-bedroom cottage. When Rev. Wiegand’s great-grandson Ben Wiley reacquired it as a summer retreat in 1984, the cottage returned to its family roots. 
 
Moving to Mt. Gretna was “like coming back to a place where I belonged,” says Ben, who now lives here year-round. A few years ago, he directed a major remodeling project—raising the original 12 x 24-foot structure above its locust post foundation, doubling it to 1,700 square feet and adding a garage and three rooms, including a wine cellar.
 
Yet amid those changes, Ben preserved his heritage. The original deed hangs on a wall. In a downstairs bath, another chapter of family history unfolds in a 1910-era linoleum floor, one of the “test floors” Armstrong Cork Company installed in the homes of employees. At the time, Ben’s grandfather was Armstrong’s purchasing agent.
 
“A certain peace comes with this community,” says Ben. “Returning to the Campmeeting.  . . it’s the same feeling folks get when they go to church on Sundays.”
 
The feeling is strongest when he’s out on the porch in a rocker—the same one that John and Anna (“Jo-Ann”) placed there 103 years ago.

 

The Lines-Santiago Cottage

Owners: Shawn Lines and Tony Santiago

For anyone harboring a dream to someday restore a 100-year-old cottage, the owners who are nurturing this burgundy-trimmed home into its second century offer some advice born of experience:
 
“Do it! It’s the greatest reward you’ll ever have.”
 
Shawn Lines and partner Tony Santiago had rented this cottage for four years—all the while planning how, when they finally bought it five years ago, they would transform their dreams into reality. 
 
They began upstairs, patiently removing natural wood from a bathroom, then fashioning each piece into architectural accents. They placed them in other rooms throughout the house. Their plan was to make everything—even touches they may have added only yesterday—look as if it had been in that spot 30 years or longer.  
 
“Have a dream,” says Shawn. “Know what you want it to look like. Bring in the amenities of modern living. But, above all, preserve the natural look and feel of a cottage.”
 
Preserving textures was their priority: Exposing a brick wall in their living room. Adding dark and light oak flooring contrasts in a thoroughly updated kitchen. Showcasing raw cedar dating back 90 years or more in the upstairs bathroom. “Textures give the cottage a natural feel,” says Shawn.
 
Outdoors, twin 80-year-old spruce trees form a natural entryway that invites visitors onto the cottage’s signature wraparound porch. “The porch—thats what the whole cottage is all about,” says Shawn. “When we open the French doors, it’s an extension of the living room.” 
 
Their home will likely always be a work in progress, yet both owners take pride in their accomplishments to date. 
 
“Many people work all their lives, and say that when they retire, they’d love to live in a place like Mt. Gretna,” says Shawn, who is still in his 30s.
 
Then he asks, “Why wait?”

“Mojito Nights”

Owner: Brad Kleinfelter

Its name (inspired by the traditional Cuban lime-and-rum cocktail) might suggest that a bachelor lives here. In fact, Mojito Nights” was the top vote getter at a recent cottage-naming party that Brad Kleinfelter—entrepreneur, cottage-owner . . . and bachelor—recently held for friends. 
 
He had spent the last two years fixing up the place. “Mostly cosmetic changes,” he says—refinishing floors, remodeling the kitchen, repainting rooms and adding a gas fireplace—all while simultaneously launching his own workers’ compensation services firm.
 
A Harrisburg native, Brad first discovered Mt. Gretna while studying at Lebanon Valley College. “I told myself, if I ever get the opportunity to own a cottage here, I’ll jump at it.”
 
Two years ago, he did just that—after driving up from Philadelphia every few days to scout the area, peeking in windows with ‘For Sale’ signs, and telling everyone he met that he was looking for a cottage.  
 
That strategy paid off—both for him and his parents, who found their own cottage near the Playhouse.
 
What Brad likes best about Mt. Gretna? “Listening to the rhythmic sound of raindrops hitting the roof. Waking up on fall mornings to the scent of smoke wafting from wood-burning fireplaces. Seeing the ‘flower lady’ who comes here on weekends. Discovering the roller rink. And spending time with my godson, Zack, at the lake—he calls it ‘Uncle Brad’s Beach.’”
 
Plus, there’s that quote. . .
 
“I am only one; but still I am one.
I cannot do everything, but still I can do something.
I will not refuse to do the something I can do.”
 
Seeing that engraved at the Campmeeting entrance, a friend remarked, “You moved to a town that quotes Helen Keller? I love it!”
 

Mt. Gretna Area Historical Society

If this looks like just another Mt. Gretna cottage, those who restored it will consider their labors a success.
 
It is actually a museum—filled with artifacts from multiple generations that have shared the Mt. Gretna experience. 
 
Like the town itself, it captures the dreams of Mt. Gretna founder Robert H. Coleman, who came to “this place thickly wooded” more than a century ago. Besides building a railroad and a park, he laid the groundwork for a lakeside community destined to celebrate culture, recreation and spiritual renewal.
 
Four years ago, members of the Mt. Gretna Area Historical society began laying their plans for a museum. Soon afterward, workers were lifting this cottage 12 feet in the air and carving out space for a basement archive and fireproof cement vault.
 
Fitted with new plumbing, wiring and handicapped facilities, the cottage has environmental controls that regulate humidity in the basement and on the first floor. An upper floor, which preserves the cottage’s turn-of-the-century origins, remains unheated.
 
To fund those improvements and strengthen its role in shaping Mt. Gretna’s future, the society recently launched a capital campaign for the museum.
 
Among its most important roles: helping owners planning to restore their cottages.  Local craftsmen, architects and builders share their knowledge of Mt. Gretna architecture. And residents can examine photographs, drawings and sample materials that serve as a guide in restoring their cottages.
 
As well, the museum is a repository for audio and video histories—memories recorded in the voices of Mt. Gretnans who helped shape the town’s history.   
 
That history is mirrored in displays of furnishings from the former Conewago Hotel and Mt. Gretna Inn; playbills with names like Charlton Heston, Bernadette Peters, Sally Struthers and others who have appeared at the Playhouse; and a handmade Campmeeting cottage dollhouse, decorated in the Mt. Gretna style with working electric lights. The museum also holds a vast store of military memorabilia, drawn from the area’s more than 50 years as summer headquarters of the Pennsylvania National Guard. 

The Flury Cottage

Owners: Pennie and Jerry Flury

Yes, this is another Mt. Gretna cottage draped in the folklore of Charlton Heston. When he performed at the Playhouse in 1948, the actor spent time on this front porch—where, legend has it, he enjoyed an occasional beer with the owner. 
 
All that occurred long before the present owners moved here, of course. But it’s a story that Pennie Flurry nevertheless likes to share.
 
Mt. Gretna memories trickle through her growing up years. As a child, she came here often with her mother. As a teenager during the 1950s, she worked at the lake. And 40 years later, when she came here with her husband, she finally fulfilled her dream of owing a Mt. Gretna cottage. 
 
Yet when a realtor first took the Flurys to look at this cottage, she shuddered. “It was awful. Asphalt shingles were hanging at ‘half-mast.’ I didn’t even want to go in.”
 
Once inside, however, Pennie found surprising discoveries. It had four bedrooms. It had space to display artwork she and her husband had found at art shows. And it offered ample room for furnishings that once graced the homes of their parents. Finally, in the upstairs bathroom was a claw-foot tub. “That sold me,” she says. 
 
Several remodeling projects have since transformed the cottage into a place where the Flurys may even retire someday. She prefers her newly remodeled kitchen (with granite countertops and space for her mother’s Hoosier cabinet) to the one in their Lancaster home.  
 
Visitors will notice an array of cat ornaments—even a cat weathervane—affirming a love that Pennie shares with Jerry, a third-generation foundry owner.
 
Her advice to anyone seeking a Mt. Gretna cottage: “Be patient. Find the right one. Don’t expect to do everything at once. Above all, don’t judge it only by what it looks like outside.”

"The Vireo"

Owners: Judy Johnson, Barb Leone and Bonnie Muller

Rooted in family traditions, this 112-year-old cottage had been owned by their parents and grandparents . . . in a village where great-grandparents, aunts and uncles had also lived.
 
Named for a songbird, the cottage is filled with echoes of music, happy memories and the scent of old books. Their grandfather’s books still line the study where he wrote his manuscripts and prepared sermons for Chautauqua Sunday services.
 
Through the years, its appearance has gone largely unchanged. “The cottage looks like it was picked up in the year 1896 and dropped into place,” says Judy Johnson, one of three daughters who recently inherited it.
 
Inside, a piano dominates the living room where their mother—a talented musician who played by ear—filled the home with music, singing and laughter.
 
In the dining room is “just an old table from somewhere,” says Judy. Yet over the years, the family has encouraged everyone who stays overnight to etch something onto its surface. “Maybe 100 different people have carved their imprints, especially after a holiday meal. Sometimes they will have carved something 10 years ago that has now changed—like a divorce. So they will have to add something else. It’s sort of a history book of friends and family,” she says.  
 
Then there’s that claw foot tub, a repository of memories where each of the sisters have bathed their children— “experiences they’ll never have again except through pictures.”
 
“We’ve never had a TV here,” says Judy—“On purpose. We wanted our kids to sing and play instead of watching television. That’s what Chautauqua was meant to be—about books, philosophizing, music, thinking, playing board games and gathering for meals.”
 
It is an opportunity today, she adds, “to touch the spirit of an earlier time.”

The Steinhauer Home

Owners: Richard and Mary Anne Steinhauer

When he discovered this “modified Cape Cod” 21 years ago, Dick Steinhauer— writer, teacher, poet and composer—considered it an almost perfect escape.
 
Surrounded by trees and nature, yet close to summertime cultural offerings that often rival those of a big city, it seemed to offer everything he wanted.
 
What he did not foresee, however, was just how often he would renovate the home over the next two decades. “It’s grown like Topsy,” he says.
 
Four major remodeling projects consolidated smaller bedrooms into larger ones, expanded a downstairs bath, and tripled the size of a window to “bring the outdoors in.”
 
Upgrading the kitchen, with its expansive pantry, was a favorite endeavor, especially since Dick now enjoys spending time there while Mary Anne goes to work as a library community relations director. Having retired 12 years ago as a sixth-grade teacher, he also continues to enjoy writing plays and composing music.  
 
Paintings that he and Mary Anne have collected fill the walls—including those in a passageway linking the main bedroom of this 1940s-era home to a study. Some are works Dick created himself. Others are gifts of a friend, an illustrator of children’s books.
 
The piano is also a gift. A retired English professor for whom Dick once composed a song based on Wordsworth’s “Intimations of Immortality” gave it to them several years ago.
 
On the lawn, Adirondack chairs hint at Dick’s favorite summertime retreat. “Mornings in Mt. Gretna are special,” he says: “The sound of birds. The aroma of fresh dew while watching squirrels and chipmunks at play. And the quiet. Above all, the quiet.”

Pat’s Garden

Owner: Pat Pinsler

This cottage garden, winner of a honorable mention award in Central Pennsylvania magazine’s  roundup of top area gardens in 2006, began as a failure 30 years ago.
           
Yet Pat Pinsler’s disappointing experiments with tomatoes and petunias in spots that get little more than an hour of sun on most days nevertheless led to her ultimate success as a shade garden specialist.
 
Her trial and error pursuits sharpened a discerning ability to judge plants suitable for growth on this sloping site. She also learned how to adapt to subtle differences in dense and filtered shade, and created imaginative patterns with rocks discovered here and at nearby sites in Mt. Gretna, where she grew up.
 
Today, this garden—with its more than 200 plants in dozens of varieties—is where she spends every spare minute when she’s not calling on her advertising clients throughout Pennsylvania. And most of that time she devotes to working, not reclining in those inviting Adirondack chairs. “I’d rather have my hands in dirt,” she says.
 
The standard by which she measures her success? “When it looks not like something I’ve done, but rather a garden that Mother Nature created all by herself.” 

Emi’s Garden

Owner: Emi Snavely

Apart from the shroud of mystery they give to gothic novels and Sherlock Holmes adventures, bogs – those wet, spongy areas of waterlogged ground that often meander along the edge of properties near a forest—are usually written off by homeowners. 
 
“I didn’t know what to do with this bog, says Emi Snavely. But years of experience in real estate has honed her fine instincts for seeing possibilities. That’s also true for her husband, a physician who sensed the potential of turning small gatherings of fellow musicians 32 years ago into what has become Music at Gretna.
 
Together, they began placing water plants here 11 years ago. Later came colorful additions, like the outsized astilbes that now dominate this site. Still later came roses—which Emi frankly never thought would grow in this spot. Also abounding here are plants that turned up on their own. “Whatever comes in from the forest that’s natural, I leave alone,” she says.
 
Other touches enhance the garden’s daily gifts of serenity and reassurance for them both, especially as their day begins. At its center is the statuette of an angel that Emi chose a few years ago, a figure that has already endured several storms. “At first, I thought the winds might blow her over,” says Emi. “But she has survived.”  The metaphor is yet another gift from this garden. 

Joy's Garden

Owner: Joy Herb

When her husband died in 2003, Joy Herb began carrying out her vision to shape this garden in his honor.
 
Adding trees, shrubs, and flowers which surround a gazebo, Joy nevertheless left open space for children to play. “A garden should be able to be enjoyed by everybody, not just filled with plants,” she says.
 
On this large (by Mt. Gretna standards) one-acre lot, Joy has ample space to achieve that goal. Children delight in gathering here. So do brides. Two weddings have taken place in this garden.
 
These grounds were a favorite spot for her husband, whose grandfather served as an early Mt. Gretna postmaster. And even though she was born in Philadelphia, Joy returns to Mt. Gretna each spring.  She adores the smell of honeysuckle and lilacs, hearing the comforting whisper of wind through the pine trees, and going barefoot. “It gives you a sense of freedom,” she says.
 
With all of the money she has put into this garden, Joy imagines that she could have built another house. "But that wouldn't have given me the pleasures of seeing this evolve,” she says. “Caring for a garden is an act of love."